CAMPAIGNERS who say a proposed phone mast on a church could be used to transmit pornography to children have presented their case at a hearing.

Telecommunications giant T-Mobile want to attach the mast on the spire of SS Peter and Paul Church on The Green, Chingford.

Chancellor George Pulman QC, Chelmsford diocese's ecclesiastical judge, made a landmark ruling rejecting the application in October last year.

Following the ruling, churches across the country who have put up phone masts may have to remove them.

However, SS Peter and Paul Church, T-Mobile and phone mast instillation company QS4 appealed to the Court of Arches in an attempt to get the decision overturned.

At the hearing today (May 8), Mark Bishop, acting for anti-mast campaigner StephenTurner, asked what steps mobile phone companies took to ensure children using the internet on their mobiles were unable to access pornographic sites.

Mobile phone technology expert Prof Peter Ramsdale said the internet was not often used by customers.

He added 96 per cent of profits from mobiles came from calls and text messages while four per cent came from the internet.

Professor Ramsdale said all mobile phones have a block for under-18s which can not be removed but there is a separate block for over-18s which can be stopped at the owner's request.

In addition, there are filters which match the website the user is visiting against a list of banned websites compiled by web watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation, he added.

Phone companies also have to abide by regulations in the Telecommunicatios Act and by communications regulator Ofcom, he continued.

The hearing continues.